Writer's block is a bitch. It can throw you into a pit of despair, nearly drown you in a pool of self-hatred, suffocate you with feelings of failure. But what if one day, you sat down at your trusty typewriter, and tapped out a character so fully-formed, so nuanced, so complex, so entirely lovely and real, that she materialized on your couch?

This exact thing happening is the premise of Ruby Sparks, the new film by husband-wife directing team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (who brought us Little Miss Sunshine). Of course, after that little miracle occurs, a whole load of problems begin for our writer dude (Paul Dano), stemming from, well, the fact that his new girlfriend Ruby isn't real.